Bluegreen Vacations, a leader in the vacation ownership industry, announced that it is launching “Owner Spotlight,” a new series of articles that feature real vacation accounts by real Bluegreen owners.

These stories will be featured via the vacation club’s Facebook and Twitter pages, various company websites and in the company’s quarterly magazine Colorful Places. Owners that are engaged members of Bluegreen’s social media channels, or are just fans are invited to follow Bluegreen on twitter and send a direct message expressing their interest in sharing their Bluegreen Owner Story.

“The goal is to get owners even more engaged in their vacation experience,” said Joseph Torraca, SEO Analyst for Bluegreen Corporation. “We want to inspire vacations through real owners and their use of our resorts.”

Megan T., of Indiana, was the inspiration behind Owner Spotlight. An active Twitter user, Megan reached out to Bluegreen requesting more vacation-inspiring information from Bluegreen’s Tweets. She knew that her family would be visiting Mountain Run at Boyne™, and thought it’d be a great opportunity to inspire vacations through her real life experiences as a Bluegreen Vacation Club owner.

Bluegreen Vacations took that concept to the next level and created the Owner Spotlight series.
“There are lots of great things happening at the resorts, so why not share that information,” Trainor said. “What are people doing at Shenandoah Crossing? What are some things to do in Boyne? The more information I can get as a Bluegreen owner, the better my vacations can be.”

You can see the Owner Spotlight updates on Bluegreen Vacations Facebook Page and Bluegreentweets Twitter feed starting August 17, 2012.

About Bluegreen Corporation
Founded in 1966 and headquartered in Boca Raton, FL, Bluegreen Corporation is a leading timeshare sales, marketing and resort management company. Bluegreen Resorts manages, markets and sells the Bluegreen Vacation Club, a flexible, points-based, deeded vacation ownership plan with more than 160,000 owners, over 60 owned or managed resorts, and access to more than 4,000 resorts worldwide.

Wyndham Vacation Ownership, the world’s largest vacation ownership company and a member of the Wyndham Worldwide family of companies announced in May, 2012, the launch of the Wyndham® Million Trees Project, an initiative to plant one million trees throughout national forests in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees.

As part of the Wyndham Green sustainability program to reduce the company’s environmental impact around the globe, owners, guests and associates at more than 150 Club Wyndham and WorldMark by Wyndham resorts and 10 corporate offices are encouraged to contribute to the cause.

“The Wyndham Million Trees Project is a new campaign that allows us to help repair our country’s forests that have been devastated by fire and natural disease,” said Geoff Richards, chief operations officer, Wyndham Vacation Ownership.

“Our business is dedicated to helping save the world’s natural resources through our many environmentally-conscious programs, from corporate recycling and waste reduction initiatives to our many sustainable resort operations. This new project will take our conservation efforts even further, allowing us to protect and maintain the nation’s outdoor beauty for future generations to enjoy,” said Richards.

The goal of this project is to raise $1 million to help plant one million trees across the country by Arbor Day 2013. Owners and guests can make monetary contributions toward the initiative in resort lobbies, online or text the word FOREST to 27722 to donate $10 to plant 10 trees.

“The need to replant our forests is vitally important because of damage from insects, disease and this year’s unprecedented forest and wildfires,” said John Rosenow, founder and chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation.

“Our forests provide countless environmental benefits, which include cleaning the air, absorbing carbon dioxide, purifying water resources and providing habitat for wildlife. We’re grateful for Wyndham’s partnership in this effort. These million trees will help keep our forests healthy for years to come,” said Rosenow.

In addition to the Wyndham Million Trees Project, the company partners with the Arbor Day Foundation on various other green initiatives. In April 2011, Wyndham Worldwide received the Arbor Day Foundation’s “Promise to the Earth Award” for its participation in the Rain Forest Rescue® Project with Arbor Day. This project supports shade-grown coffee served in Wyndham Vacation Ownership resort units.

Annually, Wyndham Vacation Ownership extends its commitment to the Arbor Day Foundation by planting signature trees at its corporate offices and resorts in celebration of the organization.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide was recently recognized as a finalist in the Orlando Business Journal's 2012 "Best Places to Work" awards as well as included in the publication's list of "Top 25 Largest Employers" in the July edition.

The only vacation ownership company to make the publication's "Best Places to Work" list, Marriott Vacations Worldwide was one of 24 Orlando employers that drew rave reviews from its workers.

"We are extremely proud to be named as one of Orlando's 'Best Places to Work,' which helps demonstrate our enduring commitment to creating an excellent workplace," said Stephen P. Weisz, president and chief executive officer of Marriott Vacations Worldwide.

"One of our core values is putting people first – so having our own associates provide feedback for this award is a testament of our great culture and unique programs that appreciate and help open doors to a world of opportunities," said Weisz.

This year's competition received 88 nominations which were then narrowed to a list of 24 finalists based on how workers responded to an anonymous online employee engagement survey. The 37 questions focused on topics including trust, feeling valued and recognition.

The finalists were divided into five divisions, based on number of employees, with Marriott Vacations Worldwide being recognized as one of three companies to have the highest employee satisfactions scores in the "mega" division. The publication highlighted the company's unique employee benefits including Marriott room rate discounts, Club 25 and Associate Appreciation Week to honor its associates.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide is home to more than 9,600 associates with over 2,200 local, full-time associates in Orlando. The company focuses on providing unforgettable vacation experiences to more than 420,000 Marriott Vacation Club, The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club and Grand Residences by Marriott Owners and Members around the globe.

BluegreenVacations, a leader in the vacation ownership industry has announced that it won a 2012 Bronze Telly Award in the travel/tourism category for its Shenandoah Crossing Resort Story Video. With nearly 11,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries, this is truly an award of distinction.

The Shenandoah Crossing Resort Story Video is approximately four minutes long, showcasing the vacation club’s rustic resort in Gordonsville, Virginia. The narration, high-quality video footage and owner testimonials all work together to give the viewer a true feel of the serenity of the Shenandoah Valley, where the resort is located.

“Winning the Telly is a real honor,” said Izzy Pycher, Senior Vice President of Creative Services for Bluegreen. “Each of our resorts has a story to tell, but Shenandoah is truly unique. With its tent-like accommodations known as “yurts” to its cabins to the RV pads, it is a great destination for our owners who love the outdoors. There is something romantic about being in the Shenandoah Valley and we thought the video conveyed that very well.”

A prestigious judging panel of over 500 accomplished industry professionals, each a past winner of a Silver Telly and a member of The Silver Telly Council, judged the competition, upholding the historical standard of excellence that Telly represents.

The Silver Council evaluated entries to recognize distinction in creative work – entries do not compete against each other – rather entries are judged against a high standard of merit.

“The Telly Awards has a mission to honor the very best in film and video,” said Linda Day, Executive Director of the Telly Awards. “Bluegreen’s accomplishment illustrates their creativity, skill, and dedication to their craft and serves as a testament to great film and video production.”

Leading hotel and timeshare holiday brand Marriott Vacation Club is partnering with Clean the World Foundation, an organization that recycles partially used bars of soap from resorts, and re-distributes them to global communities that need them.

While other hotel brands have been participating in the Clean the World drive, Marriott Vacation Club is the first timeshare brand to get involved with the Foundation.
The number of children who die from diseases and infections due to lack of proper hygiene is shocking – approximately 9,000 children die every day.

Because illnesses such as pneumonia and severe diarrhea-related diseases (e.g. cholera) can be prevented by washing with soap, Clean the World is on a mission to give these communities the soap they need, to help promote better hygiene and living conditions in deprived areas.

“This is a great program that helps so many and we’re excited to be involved. To be able to repurpose an item that previously had been discarded to make such a difference to those in need is very rewarding,” said Lee Cunningham, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer-North American and the Caribbean, Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation.

So far, 31 of 43 Marriott Vacation Club resorts in the US have contributed over 9,800 pounds of soap and 6,100 pounds of bottled amenities which have been recycled at Clean the World’s three recycling facilities in North America. As a result, more than 52,500 clean bars of soap and hygiene kits have been distributed to 55 countries, diverting eight tons of waste from landfills across the country.

“Marriott Vacation Club, our first timeshare partner, is a prime example of the true commitment we witness among our partners with regards to sustainability and social responsibility,” said Shawn Seipler, CEO and co-founder of Clean the World.

“The owners and guests who vacation in the timeshare villas can feel good knowing that their partially used amenities, which previously would have been discarded into landfills, are now being recycled and given to children and families in desperate need of hygiene products in the U.S. and worldwide,” said Seipler.

The Clean the World charity hasn't just recycled soap, it has been helping ease landfill as well, In three years the Foundation has recycled and distributed over 10 million bars of soap to families in the U.S. and 55 other countries, while diverting over 1.4 million pounds of landfill waste.

Clean the World Foundation, Inc, executes its mission of saving millions of lives around the globe by leading a global hygiene revolution to distribute recycled soap and hygiene products to children and families suffering from high death rates due to the top two killers of children worldwide – acute respiratory infection and diarrheal diseases. For more information visit: www.cleantheworld.org.